Volleyball
by Bladefanatic
Summary: Volleyball had come to Atlantis. The game was on! Lorne/Novak


Volleyball had come to Atlantis. The mess hall was filled to capacity, and the poor slugs who _had_ to be on duty were watching it all unfold on the security cameras. No one would have ever dreamed that so many people from so many countries all played in their high schools, universities, and/or rec leagues before moving on to their present occupations. But the call had gone out on both Atlantis and the Daedalus, and many were happy to take up the challenge and help their side to victory.

Lindsey Novak still wasn't sure how it all had happened. What had started as a simple conversation with Major Lorne somehow morphed into the spectacle that was going on now. Okay, so she _might_ have told him that she could wipe the floor with him…playing with a hurt knee and one hand tied behind her back; but really the man took her way to seriously.

"Your major sure looks nice in shorts."

Lindsey felt her cheeks heating up, but ignored the comment thrown to her by Jennings. Besides, she had already noted the shorts and how Evan looked in them.

"It's not regulation height."

Lindsey blinked a few times, and then turned to the new voice. It took her a moment to get the image of muscular legs out of her head. "Regulation height?"

"The net." Miko said, pointing. "The volleyball net is not the correct height. I already mentioned it to Major Lorne's men as they were putting it up, but they haven't fixed it."

Miko was one of the surprises of the whole scientists vs. military volleyball tournament. She was so small and soft spoken, that no one would have pegged her for a volleyball dynamo. But she could set a ball like none other, and her serve was lethal. It was always the quiet ones.

"Well, I guess they err in our favor then."

"Cheating, doctor?"

Lindsey hadn't heard Lorne coming up behind her as she talked to Miko. Stealth was his middle name. Good thing, seeing what line of occupation he was in.

"Hardly, Major," Lindsey turned with a grin. "You see, _we_ don't need to cheat."

Flashing a smile back, Lorne called over his shoulder. "Emerson, fix it to regulation height."

Miko moved off to make sure the height was correct, leaving Lorne and Novak alone. Lindsey had an insane urge to giggle.

"No hiccups?"

Lifting her head, Lindsey tried to pull of looking down her nose at Evan. "I only hiccup when I'm nervous."

"And you're not now?" Evan's smile grew. It was the smile that most women melted at.

"When you have the talent, there is no need to be nervous." Lindsey responded, feeling happy that she kept her cool as she moved away from Lorne. His teasing usually made her go squirrelly, especially in front of other people.

"By they way, nice legs Novak!"

She hiccupped.

_Dammit!_ Lindsey didn't turn back. She didn't want to see the smirk on Lorne's face. Joining with her teammates they began to warm up. Miko and Parrish were already bumping, setting, and spiking back and forth to each other; while others were serving to the wall and warming up their shoulders. Price, Daylin, and Hughes were warming up their legs by practicing blocks and attacks. It had been funny to learn that they were all considered "block gods" at their respective universities. Across the way, Lorne's team was doing a lot of the same things. But most were staring open-mouthed at the scientists.

"I guess they didn't think we would be any good." Katie Brown said, as she and Lindsey began their own passing warm-up.

"They could never track down where we were practicing. So they weren't able to spy on our abilities," Chuck explained from where he was warming up his serving arm.

"Aren't half those people part of a recon team or something?" Parrish joined the conversation, making everyone laugh.

"Yeah, but they didn't know who to follow. The usual scientist grapevine was mute. It cut all of them off at the knees." Lindsey said laughing along with the rest.

"All right people, listen up!" McKay's voice echoed around the room. No one was very happy that he was going got be the ref, but they also figured that he disliked everyone, so he wouldn't show favoritism to anyone. Most also thought, that the only reason he took time to learn the rules was to lord his knowledge over everyone about yet another thing. "We will be playing FIVB indoor rules…"

Lindsey felt the excitement build as she tuned out McKay and focused within herself. The game was really just for fun, needed downtime while the Daedalus integrated some new systems that McKay and his team came up with, but volleyball always brought out her competitive streak. It was the one sport that she had taken the time to really learn well. She still remembered when her long legs and arms had stopped being a hindrance. She had become a loved member of a team, when those same gawky limbs got her to the ball faster and made it easy to jump over the net for a block. She had finally found confidence in something other than "egg-head" stuff.

"Everyone got it?" McKay broke Lindsey out of her thoughts, and she moved into position. The shrill whistle sounded. The game was on.

* * *

"Even Hermiod congratulated me."

"Yeah, well that gray little guy likes you."

Lindsey snorted and then burrowed deeper into Evan's warmth. They had come out to one of the piers to see the stars. The volleyball game had been over for several hours, but Lindsey could bet that "We are the Champions" was still playing in most of the labs around Atlantis. The scientists had won three out of five, and been declared the Atlantis Volleyball Champions of 2007. There was already chatter about next year and what the teams would do better.

"It was really nice to let down our hair and forget about our many problems for a bit." Lindsey said, leaning her head to rest on Lorne's shoulder.

"Yes it was." Evan agreed, but then started chuckling. "Although I would have to say the highlight of the whole thing was when McKay got hit in the face with a ball."

"Oh, you mean the ball that Lieutenant Martin _accidentally_ hit the wrong way?"

"Hey! He hit the ball at a wrong angle. It's not his fault that McKay wasn't fast enough to move out of the way."

"Ah, and that McKay had called Martin on being in the net had nothing to do with it, huh?" Lorne mumbled something about lousy calls, but didn't say anything more. "I agree, though," Lindsey continued smiling up at him. "McKay was really entertaining. Especially when he wanted to dock your side points after he got hit."

They both fell silent. It was nice to be able to hold on to one another and just soak up the atmosphere. Lindsey felt calm with Evan, something that rarely happened with her. She even took his teasing in stride—most of the time. Lindsey still found it odd that a man like Lorne found her attractive. She had been speechless the first time he had asked her for dinner. In fact, she still felt speechless a lot around Evan.

"You didn't follow the bet to the letter," Evan interrupted her thoughts. "Seeing as you played with both arms and no hurt knee. But I guess you still won." His killer smile was back. "So what's your prize?"

"One of those paintings you only let a few people see."

* * *

After a few token complaints, Lindsey found herself the new owner of one of the paintings of Atlantis lit up at nighttime.

"It's funny, but I find that I miss Atlantis when I'm back on Earth." Lindsey said as Evan put back the ones she hadn't selected.

"Well, you now have something to look at during the weeks that you aren't here." The door chimed. Evan moved away and then stepped out into the hall to talk to one of his men. Lindsey had wanted to segue her last comment into saying how much she missed him when she was away. Now she thought that it was good the door had chimed. Lorne wasn't really all that "mushy" with their relationship, so he probably wouldn't have liked her to get all sappy about missing him.

Wondering how long Lorne would be, she walked toward where she knew he kept his unfinished drawings. Lindsey's breath hitched, and tears started to pool in her eyes. Out of the half-dozen sketches, her face was in most of them. Hearing the door swish back open, she turned to meet Evan with a dazzling smile.

"I love you too."


End file.
